Disclaimer: Nyeeehh!!

Notes/Shoutouts/Dedications: Shout outs to The Nameless Reviewer and TeamRocket251!! (Thankies for the admiration, guys, and the great IM conv. And e-mail from TR251!!!)

Note to Alex Warlorn --- Team Rocket (Or Rocketto Dan for that matter), as portrayed in the anime, haven’t any kind of reputation for killing anything – the horrible reputation they have on the Internet is pure fanon – I’m trying to keep as close to the anime as I can without destroying my story line. And patience! You’ll find out what TR1 and the twerps have got to do with anything soon!!

Part 2 of

Serum

Three Hours After the Events of Chapter 1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Giovanni arrived back in the lab. The head doctor met him.

“Here is the girl’s profile. Her name is Trixie DeCart and she comes from Saffron City.”

Giovanni allowed a slight nod in acknowledgment and continued to the girl’s bed. She was sitting up now, gazing at him with bright green eyes. Odd, her profile stated her eyes were grey.

As he looked her over, he discovered that even her skin was tinged green. Vines trailed from her wrists to her elbows and a strange looking vine had wrapped round her neck, ivy-like leaves trailing from it down her body, past the neckline of the hospital gown she wore. She looked almost like the legendary Celebii, if Celebii was a bit taller and properly humanoid, of course. He idly wondered if she could speak to Grass Pokemon too.

He finally snapped back to reality when the green eyed gaze turned slightly condescending.

“You gonna stare all day?!” DeCart snapped.

He narrowed his eyes. “I came to talk to you, Miss DeCart.”

“Well, don’t take all day about it.”

Giovanni suppressed a sharp remark. She might just refuse to co-operate if he got smart with her. Forcing himself to be polite, he started up a conversation. It may take a while to get this one to talk at all…

:~~~~~~~~~~~~:

Jessie and James crawled on their stomachs in the undergrowth, parallel to the Twerps. Meowth didn’t have to. He simply sat on James’ back. As the Twerp trio stopped to rest and check the map again, Jessie turned her head to look at James.

“Have you noticed? The two brats aren’t talking!”

“F’get not talking, Jess, dey’re not even looking at each udder…”

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking James?”

“I was thinking about a snack…”

Jessie rolled her eyes at him. Meowth simply stomped on his head.

“I’m thinking that without those two working together, they’ll not be so tough! You know, Divided We Stand, United we Fall… We can use Victreebell to knock them out, then head straight to the submarine before they can wake up and follow!” As James and Meowth listen to the plan, their eyes grew wider, and their smiles grew larger.

“That’s a great idea, Jess!” Meowth jumped down from James’ head to listen to Jessie’s animated rendition (complete with hand gestures) on how they would go about it…

Giovanni stomped out of the lab, not even looking to see if the doctor caught the profile he threw, or if he heard the command, “YOU talk to her!”

That girl was impossible!

“Prepare for trouble!”

“And make it double!”

“Oh, no…” Brock sighed.

“HEY! To protect the world from devastation…”

“To unite all peoples within our nation.”

“To denounce the evils of Truth, and Love!”

“To extend our reach to the stars above!”

Drastic pose.

“Jessie!”

Cue the rose.

“James…”

“Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!”

“Surrender now, or prepare to fight, fight, fight!”

“WOBBU…”

BANG! Wobbuffet flew into the distance. Meowth shook his fist, turned, struck a pose, and…

“Me-owth! That’s ri-ight!”

“Team Rocket.” Misty acknowledged.

“What do you want?!” Ash snapped.

“What do we always want?” Jessie smiled carnivorously.

“World domination…”

James threw his rose, so it stood upright in the earth in front of Ash.

“A promotion…”

Meowth hopped up so he stood on Jessie and James’ shoulders.

“And yer Pikachu, so hand it over!”

“I’m not giving you Pikachu!” Ash cried.

“Hm… Too bad… Now we’ll just have to take it, won’t we, James?” Jessie purred.

“What’s with you guys?!” Misty asked curiously, “You’re actin’ even loopier than usual…”

“Well, twerps, we won’t be seeing you around anymore. We’ve been called back to Black Island to test this new serum thingy…” James began.

“JAMES!! Why are you telling them all our plans?!” Jessie punctuated this with a smack to the head and James flinched.

“The point is, twerps, we want your Pikachu. It’s a little parting gift, from you, to us. Then we can give it to our Boss!” She paused, and then muttered “And maybe he’ll reconsider that dumb serum testing…”

“What serum?” Brock asked curiously. “What are you guys talking about?”

“Hmph… You wouldn’t understand the complex operations of Team Rocket!” Jessie scoffed at them. She pulled a nail file from God-Knows-Where and began to file her long nails… To a point.

“Uh-huh. Yeah.” Misty said, adjusting a suspender, “So, now what? You gonna try and take Pikachu now?”

“Oh, yeah, we forgot…” James tittered, “Weezing, go!”

“Arbok, go!” Jessie cried.

“Chikorita, I choose you!”

“Poliwhirl, I choose you!”

“Arbok, Poison Sting attack!”

The massive Cobra opened her mouth, spraying tiny poisonous needles toward Poliwhirl.

“Dodge it Poliwhirl!”

Poliwhirl flipped over the poison needles.

“Now, Bubble!”

Poliwhirl held out its fists, and bubbles shot from them. Arbok ducked, and the bubbles narrowly dodged her head.

Five minutes Later…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pikachu and Bulbasaur, Onix and Golbat and Poliwhirl and Staryu all lay scattered around the clearing, unconscious.

Victreebell was out, and she, as usual, wasn’t happy. How would she handle this anger? By biting James. Natch. And how would Jessie respond? By hitting James for not training her (Victreebell, not Jessie…). Double Natch.

Finally shaking off the oversized Fly-Trap, James pointed at the Twerps.

“Remember the combination I taught you earlier. Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, Now!”

Victreebell threw her ‘Master’ a filthy look, but complied, a cloud of blue, sparkly Sleep Powder rose from her mouth, drifting lazily toward the three teenagers, followed by the yellow Stun Spore, drifting slower, and at a lower altitude.

Before they could react, the Sleep Powder was on top of them. As they drifted off, a gust of wind blew all the Powder away, and the Stun Spore moved to the side.

Misty however, was downwind from both gases, and she breathed in a large dose of each. She coughed violently, before collapsing heavily in to a ditch at the very edge of the clearing. Pikachu and Togepi were also sound asleep by this time.

Jessie waited until both powders were gone with the wind before grabbing Pikachu from Ash.

“Why don’t we take Togepi, too? Less chance of the Boss being mad at us…” She knelt beside the curled up egg Pokemon as she spoke.

“Remember what happened last time…” Meowth muttered.

Ignoring him, Jessie picked up the egg, and three sprinted back to their submarine.

Hours Later

Ash felt consciousness returning to him. For a few seconds, he just lay there, still groggy from the five hour sleep.

Finally, as he reached for Pikachu, he noticed the absence of his friend, and all sleepiness was forced from him, replaced by panic.

He forced himself to sit up, and looked around with bleary eyes. He was in another clearing of that darn forest they couldn’t get out of. Brock lay splayed out on the ground behind him, while on his left lay…

“Misty!” Forgetting all about their argument, he forced himself to his hands and knees and crawled over to where she lay, curled up in a shallow ditch at the edge of the clearing, right next to her fainted Poliwhirl. Togepi was gone too!

“Misty, please wake up…” Ash shook her gently. A groan off to his right distracted him. It was Brock waking up.

“Oh, God… What happened…?” He rubbed his head with the palm of his hand.

“Team Rocket. They’ve taken Pikachu and Togepi!” Ash began to desperately shake Misty to wake her up. She moaned slightly in her sleep.

“Oh, no… She must have been hit by the Stun Spore Victreebell gave out with the Sleep Powder…” Ash realised, a sickening feeling unravelling in the pit of his stomach.

“I think I’ve got a treatment for Stun Spore induced paralysis here…” Brock pulled himself to a sitting position, and unclasped his backpack. He found a bottle of clear liquid, and crawled over, handing it to Ash.

Ash took the bottle, and gently opened Misty’s mouth, pouring it in small portions into her mouth.

The antidote, although it was designed for use on Pokemon, was fast acting on humans as well.

In about a minute, Misty groaned and rolled over to face Ash.

She moaned, “Ash? What’s… Going on? I feel horrible…” She raised a hand with effort and massaged her forehead gingerly.

“Team Rocket got Pikachu and Togepi. Are you Ok? We need to find them!” Ash exclaimed desperately.

Misty forced her way up, “Togepi?! We have to find them!”

She pulled herself up, but fell back uselessly. Ash grasped her shoulders and helped her up. Brock tended to Poliwhirl, while Ash helped Misty to her feet.

Brock returned Poliwhirl for Misty and put his Pokeball back into her red backpack. He approached Ash and Misty.

“Well, Misty, Poliwhirl’s fine, just fainted. I removed the effects of the Sleep Powder with a Mint Berry I found in my pocket…”

“Thank you, Brock.” Misty smiled weakly.

“We need to get to town, treat Misty and find Pikachu and Togepi!” Ash exclaimed, almost oozing determination.

The trio left, slowly moving their way toward the next town, Navana Town…

Giovanni sat at his main desk, in a large room, filled with beautiful, priceless sculptures, paintings and palm-sized models of mythical Pokemon, Gods, Demons, and other mythological beings. Being the owner of a terrorist group, along with various legit companies, including the world-renowned NeonStar, a Trainer gadget making/inventing company (Responsible for the creation of the Pokegear) certainly had its perks. The communications port built into the desk buzzed into life.

“Uhhh… Sir?” The doctor in charge of the serum testing.

“What?” He snapped down the small machine.

“We’ve done a full new profile on DeCart…”

“And…?”

“The Grass serum appears to have changed her brain completely. She speaks of memories that we know never happened, and things like growing up on a farm, although her hay fever is so bad she would have died on a farm. The Serum has altered her memories to make her suit her new DNA.”

Meanwhile…

A large Tentacruel glided through the water. On the surface, this looked perfectly normal, but if you looked closer, you would notice that, unlike most Tentacuel, this one wan’t using its large, venomous tentacles to propel itself through the murky Lake Tohjo, but rather, two propellers, disguised as natural growths on the dumbbell shaped core of the Jellyfish Pokemon’s large body mass. If you were to take a look inside, you would see Jessie, on a three-man exercise bike connected to these propellers…

“Get in here, James!” Jessie yelled. “Up front! We’re almost at Black Island!”

James climbed up into the main room through a rusty ladder. “I thought you were in the engine room, helping Meowth with repairs…”

“I got bored. So sue me.” Jessie threw a chocolate biscuit from the pack beside her at him. “Here.”

“Thanks. So, how far away are we from being guinea pigs…”

“Two miles exactly…” Jessie grumbled. She lifted the super re-enforced glass shockproof tank Pikachu and Togepi were in; sound asleep from exhaustion (Pikachu had been blasting at the glass all day, and Togepi was worn out from the excitement) and gazed at them thoughtfully.

“I almost feel sorry for those two.” James spoke sympathetically.

“Yeah, but we won’t get tested on!” Jessie exclaimed, “So, it’s worth it…”

“Right?” The two spoke at the same time.

It was morning. Ash and Brock, each lending an arm to prop up poor Misty, had arrived the previous night. Nurse Joy, refusing to hear their pleas to let them phone Professor Oak – and Brock’s half-hearted plea for a date, for that matter – had sent the three to bed, shocked at the state they were in. Unfortunately, none of the three had gotten much sleep, and Misty had obviously been crying the night before. Now, the three were explaining their plight to the sympathetic Prof. Oak.

“So what should we do, Professor Oak?” Ash felt as bad as he sounded, Professor Oak felt very sorry for him.

“I could trace your Pokemon using their microchips, but the tracing technology is still in it’s early stages, and might not work very well, and if Team Rocket have found the microchips… Well, there’s no way to find them.” Professor didn’t wait for an answer as he reached to a console near him, activating the Tracer.

Tracey burst into the Lab a minute later, looking blackened, his hair almost standing on end.

“Professor! I was working on the quirks in the Tracer when you turned it on! What do you need it for, any… Oh, hey Ash, Misty, Brock!” He shook off the ratchet, and various other metal components sticking to him, and reached the viewer.

“What’s up you guys, you look terrible!” He exclaimed in surprise.

He was right. Their clothes were dishevelled, their hair messy, Misty had the remains of tears on her cheeks, and the absence of Pikachu and Togepi told him exactly why…

“Team Rocket…” Tracey muttered.

“Well, here goes.” The Professor hit some buttons, activating the Tracer. It searched for the two signals…

“Here! They’re near Black Island, near the Tohjo Falls on Lake Tohjo. That’s rumoured to be Team Rocket’s main hideout. That’s where their Boss stays when the Indigo League’s not running.” Professor Oak finished, worriedly.

“Well, that’s where we have to go…” Ash growled, “They’re not keepin’ my Pikachu!”

“Or my Togepi…” Misty snarled.

“So Black Island, here we come!” The two finished together, a look of raw determination flitting across their features.

:~~~~~~~~~~~~~:

I was really expecting this to go on further, but it seemed good to end it here…